Sing for me
by Taranea
Summary: Alternate ending to Firewing. Shade has flown into the tree in the underworld and gets separated from his still living children...but what does he find this time?


Disclaimer: I do not own Shade nor any related characters.

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Shade had been separated from the others, that was all he knew at the moment. 

The horrible suction had finally stopped and he believed himself to be in a large cavern. At least he couldn´t detect any walls so far, any sense of direction lost in this eternal darkness.

"Griffin!" he called.

No answer.

Fate could be so cruel.

Shade had only known him for such a short time, why did he have to lose him again so soon?

And was this to be the Beyond? It reminded him of the dark river.

Absolute blindness?

Forever?

He could not bear the thought. Should that Dante Griffin had told him about have been right after all? That every bat who had ever entered the Tree was now trapped in this awful darkness, unable to find others and lost for all eternity?

He was close to screaming in despair, to cry in devastation…when he suddenly heard something.

Shade couldn´t place it at first, but the sound soon became more familiar, like a strange music he had heard before. It began like the melody of the Tree, but there was another tone as well…

It reminded him of…home.

Like Ariel had groomed his fur when he was little, brought him food and taught him to hunt as he grew older. It reminded him of his mother.

Suddenly Shade knew what that strange sound was, as if the knowledge had been there since he was born. It was Nocturna, Mother to all bats and creatures of the night.

Nocturna, twin of Zotz.

Shade concentrated on the sound, listened here and there, trying to absorb the notes.

And they spoke to him.

_Shade…_

He strained his ears, listening more intently than ever.

…_help me._

Help me?! Nocturna asked _him_ for help? What could he possibly do?

"Nocturna, I…"

The faint melody changed a little.

_Do not talk,_ it said to him, _for I have no ears with which I could hear you. Speak to me through your heart._

The Silverwing did not know how to speak through his heart. He just concentrated as hard as he could, hoping against hope that she would be able to understand him.

'Nocturna, I don´t _know_ how to help you. I don´t understand any of this. In the Underworld I met your twin and he said he had killed you!'

_Yes, Shade Silverwing, _the notes sang,_ that is the truth. He killed my body and I was shattered, my essence spreading out over all of creation. It costs me a lot of strength to gather enough of my spirit here to talk to you. That is why I need your help._

'But what can I _do_?' he thought, desperately.

_You have a gift of handling sound. Not many would have heard me here. Form a body from it for me, Shade. A body, as invisible as the wind, to be seen only by my leather-winged children.._

_If you can do that, I can give you back your life. A part of me which you more than deserve, you, whose son´s life has been taken away from him and who willingly gave his own so his child would live._

The faint melody ceased, only to start anew, stronger this time.

_And now, Shade, sing. Sing for me, sing for Marina, sing for Griffin and for your colony. They all want you back…_

And Shade sang. He wove a net of sound waves, created a hull like he had for himself in the pyramid, when all hope had seemed lost.

He was not sure how it should look but let his feelings guide him. He gave it the powerful, wide pinions of the Greywings he had always admired. He gave it a fur as was his son´s, ragged silver and black lines covering the chest and the back.

He remembered the ears of Zephyr which were able to hear everything, even the stars and gave her those as well.  
Her claws would look like those of Chinook, who had saved him with them so many times. And now…

Nocturna´s face.

This was the hardest part. Shade was sure his vocal cords would have given up by now but he didn´t even feel them.

Maybe there was no pain in death?

He thought about Frieda and her eyes that could have seen the world. Eyes worthy of a goddess.

Finally, he gave her the features of Marina and the expression of Ariel.

It was strange.

She should have looked like a patchwork, but instead, all of the different parts had somehow become a whole, a body that fit. And even while he was forming that body, he could feel a prickling sensation in his claws and his tail. Out of the corner of his eye he watched life working its way upwards inside him.

It itched and tickled in his fur, shot through his veins, covered his wing membranes, soaked every single cell of his form and performed a fire work behind his eyes.

The last thing he saw was a final bright flash of sound and then…

The empty hull suddenly seemed alive and in the same instant he realized that it had not vanished, even though he was not singing any more.

_"Shade…thank you."_

Just those three words, and already his ears rang as if he was inside a giant bell which had just been struck. Nocturna noticed and continued in a whisper.

_"It is beautiful .With this body I will be able to block the tunnel if the Vampyrum of the underworld should ever manage to break through the surface"_

She gave a brief pause and smiled.

_"And now, Shade Silverwing…return home."_

The goddess folded her wings and vanished, a single note still hanging in the air and slowly fading. Shade felt as if he was fading with it, his body slowly dissolving, going elsewhere…

XXX

He woke up in the forest, seeing Tree Haven from afar. He beat his wings faster immediately, shot past confused Silverwings and entered his home. Curving up in tight spirals, Shade only stopped when he heard the surprised cry of Marina and saw her with his son, then rushed towards her to greet them, feeling as if he would burst with happiness.

The rest of the night passed in a blur, he and Griffin telling their tale time and time again, their listeners swayed between amazement and disbelief. Other bats continously brought insects for them, fearing that Shade might leave to hunt instead of finishing his story.

As the sun rose, most of them settled down to sleep, already saving their powers for the great trip which would begin soon enough.

Shade huddled close to Marina and Griffin, feeling a safety he had been missing for so long.

He listened to their breathing and the quiet murmuring of the other Silverwings around him, slowly driftng off to sleep…

And up above, far over the tree tops, almost too silent to be heard – the gentle beating of a giant bat´s wings.

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...I am SUCH a sucker for happy endings. 

well, I actually wrote this a few years ago, so you definitely don´t see me at my best here. Additionally, this fic originally wasn´t written in english back then, but in my first language, so what you see here is actually a _translation_, which I found a lot harder to do than just writing in english right from the start. So since this is a first for me, **please** tell me what you thought of it, of content and writing style alike. :)

**Thx a lot for reading and reviewing! **


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